


She Dreamed of Him

by malifi



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Gen, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 01:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1670393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malifi/pseuds/malifi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He left.  He came back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Dreamed of Him

The conversations washed over him dimly, blurred together in the fog of cigarette smoke and alcohol surrounding his poker table. He was a guest in Miguel Sandoval's establishment, so the betting was conservative for now. Trying not to take this slurring idiot for all he was worth – not too quickly, at least. He'd learned that in a place like El Rey, it was a good idea to keep your head down. Better for your general well being.

He hid a grimace at truly shit cards when a sentence fragment caught his ear. Something about a girl, a white girl, giving them a fair bit of trouble. The two men were sitting a few tables over, but he didn't have to strain to hear their boasts. His stomach dropped sickly as the second one laughed a little too loudly about a stolen RV with the little bitch in back. He was up and moving before his opponent could grunt an argument, flinging useless cards down on their meager pile of chips.

The main room of the bar was everything a Mexican hole in the wall could hope for, but the apartments in back were the real draw. Sandoval had a respectable harem going, an entire team of girls minded by seasoned drug runners. Guns, sex, and drugs, plenty of all for travelers foolish enough to partake - lucky if they escaped with their lives. He pushed through the double doors separating the two worlds with a glance at the guard, threading through the kitchen to the hallways beyond. Closed doors that didn't muffle exaggerated moans of pleasure. He was moving fast but could already tell that he was late. The parking lot was too long and he was going to be too late. Her name pounded through his head as he caught sight of the RV, the familiar lines he'd watched fade into nothing through his rear view mirror not long enough ago.

 _Goddamn it, Kate_ , he thought, he ran, not seeing the guard that should have been posted outside the door, knowing where he would be instead. Gun in hand, he ripped open the flimsy screen and froze. The interior of the RV was in chaos, belongings scattered across the hallway leading to the back room. The tiny table turned on its side and his stomach twisted at the sight of a single sneaker among the rubble on the floor.

He caught sight of the dead man first, pants down and twisted around dirty shoes, soaked in a spreading pool of blood. She was crouched next to him, tiny blade in a clenched fist and splattered with gore. A torn dress hung off one shoulder, but it was unquestionably  _her_  and he felt something in his chest loosen for the first time in three months. It was _her_ , she was  _here_ , and she was  _alive_. She turned at the sound of his entrance, knife thrust towards unknown danger, eyes glittering with fear and shock.

"Kate?" He dropped the gun immediately, other hand raised in a gesture of surrender. She scrabbled away from him across the floor, pressing hard against the wall with her knife hand still pointed at him. "Kate, Katie, it's me." Her eyes locked on the gun, harmless and dangling on one finger from the trigger guard, before flicking up to his face. Her pupils were blown wide, almost eclipsing the grey of her eyes, and he carefully put the gun back into the waistband of his pants. "It's me."

"Seth?" Her voice was tiny in the quiet and the carnage of the room, but it was  _hers_  and he nodded stupidly. "Are you real?" He was undone by the childlike confusion of the statement but he forced a pathetic smile.

"Usually." She looked at him for a long moment before nodding in agreement.

"I dreamed of you."

His apology died in his mouth as her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped gracelessly to the floor. He moved quickly to scoop her into his arms, eyes raking over the ruined RV for anything that looked important. They'd have to leave it, Sandoval's men would be hunting. He snagged the strap of a backpack that he might have remembered as hers and left the rest without a backward glance. His car was on the edge of the lot and he strapped her limp form into the passenger seat with minimal shaking. Forcing his fists to unclench, he carefully pulled the ruined halves of her dress together and smoothed the fabric down.

It was his fault, but he was going to make it right. She was here, she was alive, and he was going to figure out a way to make it right.

They sped away into the desert, night covering their wheel tracks in dust.

 


End file.
